Dino mania

It is all dinosaurs, all the time, at our house right now. Cailan pretty much eats, breathes, and sleeps dinosaurs. You probably think I'm exaggerating, but you wouldn't if you were the one putting him to bed listening to his stream-of-consciousness dino-babble as he falls asleep. When he draws, whether he's sitting at the kitchen island while we cook dinner or outside in the driveway with the sidewalk chalk, it's dinosaurs. He re-named all his stuffed animals with dinosaur names; this one was hard for us, because it is really difficult to call a frog "Deinonychus" or a zebra "Hypsilophodon." When he plays with letters, either the magnet letters on the refrigerator or his foam bathtub letters, all he spells are dinosaurs. When he plays with legos, all he makes are dinosaurs. When Chris took him to the library, he ran in and announced to the librarian at the circulation desk "I'm going to find some dinosaur books."

I've shared some pictures of his bathtub dinosaurs. Here are a few that he has made on the refrigerator.

Tyrannosaurus

Huayangosaurus

Heterodontosaurus

When Chris saw heterondontosaurus, at first he thought that Cailan had given up before finishing the word. But then he saw the clever wrapping around to the side of the refrigerator. I guess when you're only almost-three, it's hard to judge exactly how much room you're going to need for a big dinosaur name. My favorite so far has been ichthyosaurus, spelled "IKPHYASAUR." Cailan still says most of his "th" sounds as either "f" or "d", so he spelled icthyosaurus the way he says it. But why he chose to use a "ph" for the "f" sound is beyond me.

And finally, some Lego dinosaurs:

Tyrannosaurus rex and Euoplocephalus

Corythosaurus, Parasauralophos, and Brachiosaurus

Here he is, exhausted but still able to mutter a few dinosaur names: